Art Deco Gas Stations

Have you ever noticed how many art deco gas stations Tucson has? This seem peculiar to me for many reasons. There were about 30,000 people here during art deco's Depression Era heyday. How many people in this cow town could have had cars? Even more mysterious is how the gas stations survived Tucson's contempt for old buildings. If Barrio Historico was razed for our abominable Tucson Convention Center, how did the lowly gas stations survive the Urban Removal of the '60s? Compounding the mystery is the question of why these gas stations weren't destroyed a few years ago when it seemed the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality suddenly got tough about LUSTs (leaking underground storage tanks), and numerous gas stations were bulldozed so the soil could be cleaned up.

The beauty shown above is at 648 North Stone Avenue. I just love the cupola, which looks like a soft serve ice cream cone. This gas station has a new life as the offices of a bail bondsman and a seller of Mexican car insurance.



This station at the northeast corner of Grant and Stone is empty, despite having wonderful windows.

Jimmy's Broadway operated at the southwest corner of Tucson Boulevard and Broadway for years without bothering to hang a sign. Then suddenly they got a website and a paint job that accentuates the art deco lines.

I think the predecessor to Jimmy's Broadway used to serve its customers at the current location of Long Wong's at Tucson Boulevard and 6th Street, where buffalo wings and beer are now served. I liked the dancing bears they used to have painted on the side of the building better than the current pink flamingos, which are so '80s. Or '50s. Maybe Long Wong's is just 10 years ahead of its time.

At least one more art deco gas station can be found at the southwest corner of Main and Speedway. The windows have been covered and the streamlining on the canopy has been covered, and the canopy supports have been replaced by some thin ugly pipes. No respect.

Update: Mystery solved. None of these gas stations was built in the '30s. According to the tax records, 648 N Stone was built in 1960, Long Wong's was built in 1941, Jimmy's Broadway was built in 1986, 1 East Grant was built in 1959 and 1057 North Main was built in 1953. Oh well.

Building Permits by E-mail

I have previously posted here (October 9, 2007) about the importance of checking for building permits when you are buying or selling a house. Most agents don't bother with this, either because they don't know the consequences of buying or selling a home with an unpermitted addition (which is a huge proportion of the houses in Central Tucson), or they figure what their client doesn't know won't hinder the house sale.

Some agents are aware of the need to check permits to the extent that they go to the City of Tucson's Development Services web site and look there. If they don't find anything, they conclude no permits exist. The problem with this is the City has only put permits on their web site for the past few years. Most of the carport and porch enclosures occurred decades ago.

Friday I went to the Development Services office at 201 North Stone Avenue to look up the permits for a house I have in escrow. I was dismayed to find that I can no longer request the microfiche of the permits and have a paper copy made on the spot. Now I have to submit my request, and the staff will e-mail the permits to me in a day or so.

This had to happen eventually. I was always amazed that the City let people get their hands on these microfiche, the only records of the building permits. Because the City will only make 10 copies per customer per day, a lot of the microfiche were stolen. More were probably misfiled and lost forever. Until a few years ago, people could take the microfiche without even giving their name. Then a form with name, address and phone number was required, but no one verified the contact information, so I doubt this had much effect on the disappearance of microfiche.

Now that I know the drill, it will be a pleasure to request permits online at dsd_records@tucsonaz.gov. I will not miss the drive downtown, paying $2 to park in the garage, and impairing my vision and sanity while trying to use the ancient microfiche reader.